Rahul Gandhi's hosts, India Inc, give speech an A

New Delhi: India Inc today was impressed by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's maiden interaction with corporate leaders saying he came across as a sincere leader and this can form the basis for future engagement with the industry.

"It was a very good speech. His ideas are brilliant. Industry has to see how it can work with the government. We should work in unison for greater progress," said Adi Godrej, president of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), which hosted the conference.

In his speech at the CII annual conference, Mr Gandhi spoke about his vision of empowering women and giving voice to the people of billion-strong nation. During his interaction, he said that questions of his becoming Prime Minister and getting married were just irrelevant.

CII president-designate S Gopalakrishnan said, "This is his first engagement with the business community and he met the industry's expectation. It was a very good interaction. It sets the tone for future interaction. He spoke very broadly about various issues. I see this as a better collaboration between industry and government."

Veteran industrialist and a Congress critic Rahul Bajaj said, "People say he doesn't have any experience and he has not spoken to people. I'm impressed on his frankness and his frankness of ideas. He talked about the work of MPs and MLAs. He rightly said that a team needs a good leader for doing things right."

On Mr Gandhi becoming Prime Minister, Mr Bajaj said, "I support the one who will be good democratic leader rather than someone who is very dictatorial."

Mr Gandhi's comments, however, did not cut ice with some business leaders who said the Congress leader talked about the problems without coming out with any solution.